Thursday, September 29, 2011

If you are at the store or shopping online and buy battery operated kids toys for your children, you should know that the marked price is not the price you will ultimately pay. You will be paying for the price of the toy along with a lifetime of batteries.

Batteries are not very cheap. A three or four dollar pack of batteries may not seem like much at first, but over time, it adds up. Some toy companies are nice enough to include the first set of batteries with the toy, but the lifetime of AAA batteries can be anywhere from twenty to thirty hours. If your children like the toy, which hopefully they will, that's not a very long time.

A twenty dollar toy may end up costing over a hundred dollars. If you buy several toys at this price, you could be digging yourself into a financial hole. There is another way, however. If you don't want to sacrifice your children's happiness as you try to cut some of the extra spending, you should consider buying toys at CP Toys. We offer a variety of fun and educational kids toys that will engage their imaginations and not tie up your check book with battery costs.

What can you find at CP Toys that won't require batteries? You can find many games and puzzles that will help with their problem solving skills and keep your children occupied for hours. We have toys conditioned to help your children with the arts, sports, and pursuits, as well as classic toys that you may have grown up with. Shop CP Toys today and discover a world of battery-free possibilities.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

When I was a child, I was taught my ABCs through a system of puppets designed as the letters. For example, Mr. H was very hairy, so I associated the "h" sound with hair. After we practiced pronouncing that sound, we got our reward: the chance to play with Mr. H, the puppet. Learning through traditional teaching methods followed by interacting with a toy that resembled what we learned was an excellent way for me to learn because I got bored easily just listening to my 83 year old kindergarten teacher speak for more than a few minutes. I was young and eager and could not sit still for a moment. Interactive learning helped bridge this gap and made it possible for me to learn easier.

More and more classrooms are utilizing interactive learning because it gives younger students the chance to play around with the kids toys, objects, or software so that they make some sort of connection. For example, 1+1=2 may not make any sense to a child, if he doesn't have any contextual understanding of what these numbers stand for.

However, if you put one bead and add another bead, the child can see that there are now two beads on the table. No two children learn the same, so having more than one style of teaching offers the greatest opportunity to help children learn the basics. We are increasingly becoming a visual and interactive society. We read through a combination of image and text and see more movies than read books. Our teaching pedagogies must coincide with this shift. For some students, they can learn by just listening to the teacher. For others like me, it's easier to learn through playing with software or toys. Whatever the case, passive and interactive learning are both necessary methods to help children learn the basics.